Conventional overhead door assemblies, such as sectional overhead doors and overhead panel doors, are commonly used in residential and commercial garage structures to close a garage opening. Overhead door assemblies of this type include roller tracks positioned adjacent the interior sides of the garage opening and extending from near the floor of the garage toward the level of the top of the garage opening. The roller tracks are designed to guide an overhead door by providing a track for a plurality of rollers to travel, the rollers rotatably mounted along the side edges of the overhead door. Spring, pulley, and cable assemblies are often positioned adjacent the roller tracks and connected at one end to the garage structure and at the other end to the overhead door to counter-balance the weight of the overhead door.
Conventional roller tracks have a C-shaped cross-section and include a sidewall, a curved roller race extending from the sidewall, and a flat flange extending in a direction transverse to the sidewall. The roller race and the flange define an interior area within which the rollers of the overhead door travel, and an opening positioned toward the overhead door. The interior area must be kept free of obstructions that could restrict travel of the rollers along the roller track. In addition, the outer surfaces of the roller race and flange must be kept clear of obstructions near their ends to allow cable and spring assemblies of the overhead door assembly to move freely alongside the roller track.
Mounting brackets, supports, and other devices for securing or attaching to the roller track of an overhead door assembly are commonly attached to the roller track with threaded fasteners or tab-in-slot mechanisms of the type shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,533 of Mullet et al. One disadvantage of these methods of attachment is that the fasteners protrude within the interior of the roller track and may hinder the travel of the rollers along the interior of the roller track. Additionally, these arrangements require the person attaching the mounting bracket to align the mounting bracket with pre-fabricated holes or slots in the roller track to connect the mounting bracket and the roller track. The mounting holes and slots are formed in predetermined locations during fabrication of the roller track, which can result in inaccurate placement of mounting holes or slots, or the complete lack of mounting holes where needed.
Many modern commercial and residential security alarm systems employ a sensor for indicating the position of the overhead door along the roller track. The sensor is typically attached, after installation of the overhead door assembly, either to a structural wall near the overhead door or to the roller track. Because overhead door assemblies are typically not designed to accommodate security systems, mounting holes or slots often do not exist at places along the roller track where it would be desirable to mount the sensor. One way to overcome his problem is to drill additional mounting holes in the roller track during or after installation of the roller track. However, this post-manufacture drilling procedure is expensive, time-consuming, and inconvenient.